Youngstown to pay $361,079.33 in severance packages to 20 former employees

Youngstown to pay $361,079.33 in severance packages to 20 former employees

YOUNGSTOWN

The city’s board of control agreed today to pay $361,079.33 in severance packages to 20 of its former employees who took an early-buyout incentive late last year.

The city owed the money for unused sick and vacation time, longevity pay and education bonuses. The city paid about $460,000 last year to 33 others who took the buyout.

The buyout of two years of state Public Employees Retirement System time for the 53 cost about $2 million, split almost evenly between 2012 and this year.

The city will save those former workers’ combined annual salary of $2,855,018 with about $1.14 million more in benefits. There will be a few employees replaced and Finance Director David Bozanich is staying on for another year.

Also today, Mayor Charles Sammarone said he wants to use as much of the $2,857,935 the city is receiving this year from V&M Star, which is leasing land for its expansion project, toward vacant residential demolition and neighborhood improvements.

The city is spending about $2.5 million this year on demolition, and expects that to be enough money to take down about 350 to 400 structures.

Sammarone said the V&M money would help bring the city a lot closer to his goal of demolishing 1,000 structures in 2013.